Monday, January 17, 2011

Skimmed these two interesting posts from different blogs on how Facebook's "Engineering Driven Process" works. I can see some similarities and some differences from FOSS process.

While it's true up to a point that FOSS process differs from project to project based on the community, I think there's enough in common that an interesting piece could be written for opensource.com comparing the two.

I'm not the right guy to do it. Not an engineer and not enough FOSS experience under my belt, but I'm sure someone on the Planets would be the right person, or people, to give it a shot.

Sunday, January 9, 2011

Well, at my request Remy compiled a list and it blew my mind. It's still rough, just a first pass at a categorized list of links. Over the next couple of weeks we'll polish it into a full article that discusses the bullet points in more detail, adds lessons learned, and lays out what we hope the next year will bring.

Bottom line, FOSS@RIT has pulled a lot together in 12 months and none of it would have happened without the people who got us started and always have our backs...

Mel Chua
Remy Decausemaker
Luke Macken
Karlie Robinson

Other thanks to those who've given us advice, opportunities or support in other ways...

Walter Bender
David Farning
Adam Holt

Some of those who moved on, but got us up and running...

Greg DeKoenigsberg
Eric Grace
Fred Grose

Truth be told, what RIT has accomplished has been due primarily to these people and to the students. I just put together a class and a home base and watch them go. While all of the students who've taken the class have had an impact, these particular regulars of the FOSS Box have led the way. All of these folks have done multiple co-ops or summer research fellowships, manage on-going projects and/or help keep the FOSS Box running. Many of them are seriously considering Open Source as a career path, so keep your eyes out for them, they're gonna be monsters.

Sunday, January 2, 2011

While in Hong Kong I got an introductory e-mail from T.K. Kang, who has been active in OLPC Asia. T. K. and I had a pleasant dinner together Monday night, my last dinner in HK before returning home. T.K. has been very active access technology efforts throughout his career and is interested in seeing more FOSS and OLPC/Sugar efforts in this area in Asia, as he feels that Hong Kong, China and other Pacific Rim countries are far behind the state of the art.

He pointed out that there were a variety of older, but successful DOS-based programs that had potential for OLPC application if they were converted over, as their resource demands would likely be in sync with the OLPC technology. He is interested in writing some grants to support access technology on the OLPC platforms.

This would be an area that a team of RIT students might be able to help him pursue down the road. We will also look into providing him with some of our 1.0 XO's to use to pilot his efforts and to have working proof of concepts to demonstrate to support his pursuit of funding for his work.

All in all, a worthy trip, from presenting on our own efforts to finding other FOSS and OLPC/Sugar contacts in Hong Kong. I'm looking forward to a New Year full of new efforts and a second POSSE on the RIT campus!